The Holy Martyr Pelagia
Acts 8:18-25; John 6:35-39
Read Acts 8:18-25
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
“Nowadays, people know the price of everything but the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
It seems that our world has commodified everything and made life completely transactional. This observation isn’t to say that we should live in a world free of commodities and transactions. The whole nature of commodities and transactions has existed since time immemorial, and Jesus, too, lived in a world that required purchasing and selling just like ours does in order to make a living. But there are things that cannot be purchased, commodified, or obtained through a transaction.
Simony, brothers and sisters, is the act of buying or selling something spiritual. It is named thus because of today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles where Simon Magus attempts to purchase ordination and the ability to ordain others through the laying on of hands which imparts the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Mysteries which the Lord offers us through the ministry of the Church are a free gift which should not be sold, purchased, or commodified. (Though certainly a worker deserves his wages.) In our own lives, what do we treat as a transaction that was never intended to be that way? Is it how we view the time we spend with others? Is it the way we treat the opposite sex, even our own spouses? Is it the relationship we have with our church community? Is it the way we treat our parents? How can we change our approach in order to not commodify people or the things of the Lord?